If not NOW, when???

Yes, use it now! If it gets broke, oh well....at least it was injoyed.

to be honest, at one point Mom suggested getting it out, but I was washing enough dishes!

That someday did come - your mother wanted you to have them as a gift - new and unused - what a delightful way to celebrate your life and give your mother a beautiful tribute - enjoy your China - we must all learn to burn our candles, drink out of good crystal, fill those vases with wild flowers and weeds but use things - Good for you Doc...it's a beautiful pattern and when you go to the store, buy one of those lovely bamboo plants to go along with it...in fact, in my breakfast nook, I have a plate rack around the wall and that's where plates should hang out but right now I have books there...ok I've prattled enough, my friend, you enjoy those dishes knowing your mama would be happy. Salud.

thank you Mariana.

Right on, right on, right on.

It is a lovely pattern, Doc. I love the way you are thinking, too. I once thought the same way: save the good stuff for special occasions. I don't think that way anymore. Want to know why? I consider me, myself, and Ispecial occasion enough. So, I do use the good China; you had better believe it!

And you, Doc? You are definitely a "special occasion" if I ever knew one. Reminds me: there is a song I would like to upload, just for you, you leetle "SPECIAL OCCASION" you!

Doc, keep on loving yourself like this. It's wonderful!

Hi Spenceeeer!

They're beautiful and that's just what she would want you to do with them. They are passed to you with love.

it is so beautiful wow I'd use it every day too.

Smart! Live - it is good to see the seasons pass with losses reconciled and new plateaus reached. I'm happy for you, Doc!

I once heard if you don't use your good china, the second wife will. That's a really disturbing thought though.

My grandmother had to raise a family on her own after being deserted by a no-good husband. Uneducated with little English, she took whatever job she could. And she survived.
When grandma died we were going through her things. For the last part of her life she lived in a two-room apartment. This is when we discovered a third room. This room was crammed with all kinds of stuff. "Garbage" my mother deemed it after several days of sifting through the accumulation.
Grandmas's death was fully expected and a relief to her and all of us who could not make her life better in the end.
My strongest memory of this not altogether sad time was when mother started unscrewing the cap from a large glass jar stuffed full of silk stockings. Now I was a kid so I wouldn't know silk stockings from Christmas stockings. But mother shook her head and verified that these were silk stockings from WWII. When she lifted the lid from the jar and the air hit the contents, all of those carefully bundled silk stockings disintegrated into a pinky-brown powder. Apparently, my penny-pinching grandma was saving them for a rainy day that never came. Mother turned to all of us sisters and said something like, 'Let this be a lesson to you, enjoy using what you have while you have it.' I'm pretty sure all of us little girls missed the full implications of this good advice.

Amen, Doc! My mother had a gorgeous silver tea set that she didn't even display because it was "for company," which is kind of insulting, when yu think about it. Only "company" gets to view/use nice things? Then again my mom was Shaboinging Nutz...

My mother has something of everything put aside for "company" or the "hospital." Everytime she got a nice gown or housecoat, it went into the drawer in case she had to go to the hospital. And out would come the one on the bottom that had been there from two or three giftings ago. Even though they insist you wear hopitals gowns now, she still puts away the latest acquisition in favor of one that has been lingering waiting for a replacement. I think a lot of that was learned during the Depression, Doc.

Joy "Shaboinging Nutz"

gohd! I hadn't heard or seen that in thrity years!

THANK YOU! I loved that laugh out loud.. it may appear in a article later!

just ate my first meal alone off them.. lovely to use, would give a lot for Mom to be here to share.

so it goes.

Hello Doc. I was just dusting off a framed cartoon that one of my dad's friends gave him about flying. I missed him so as I looked at the funny sayings like the captain saying, "Of course I know where I am--that's St. Thomas," while the navigator is saying, "But there's a banner down there that says Welcome home Premier Castro." My dad was fearless. He actually got into Cuba legally somehow, even while it was banned to go. Jeez, I miss him. There was a man who knew how to do emotional support.

I am sorry for your loss.

My mother saved all her 'nice' clothes, dishes, glasses, jewelry, etc. for 'special' occasions, though nothing ever seemed special enough to use them.

When she died some beautiful things were given to Goodwill. It was sad, as I think she really loved those things but didn't feel worthy.

I agree Doc! My china, both sets, are in a storage room in GA, awaiting our return to the States. I plan to use one or the other very often!

I am as good as any man that ever trod the earth.

When my youngest were very small 2 and 3, a friend of mine gave me a set of beautiful Staffordshire dishes. She gave them to me under the condition that I use them everyday. I argued with her that the kids would break them. She told me that beautiful things were meant to be used and who better to eat off them my children.

Of they're all gone, broken and pulverized.

But my kids know that when they were little they ate their PB&J off Stafforshire.

lovely story Sharon..

The pattern is beautiful!

Enjoy every meal you use them for and remember how HAPPY your mom would be to know you are enjoying them!

I have a few items like that - I take them out and use them when I want to visit some memories. I cannot leave them out for general enjoyment, since one of my felines is working on a dissertation on the ongoing effects of gravity on objects pushed off of flat surfaces. Bless he furry heart....

I can dig it!

Good for you. You're right. As Janis Joplin said, "Tomorrow never happens..."

yes, the time has come to enjoy the china...and i wish for you that mom was there enjoying it with you. Saving good things was a generational thing...and I find myself doing it, too! I always wanted enough matching plates for my children and their spouses to dine on a holiday...so that service for 12 sits in the cupboard. Ha! My kids may never marry!

Ellen;

now, I am quite literally all alone in this world with not much to lose. so I'd just as soon they go to a thrift store as a broken set when I am gone as a full one. noi kids, no family, no urge to get used again.

It's good to realize that sometimes someday can be now.

You should definitely use your candles, the silver, the good dishes, ect, someday is NOW, and I think that everyone should use the good stuff now, not save it for company or someday.... enjoy!!!!!!